God said: "You cannot see My face; for no one shall see Me and live" (Exodus 33:20). Not one of us sinful human beings would survive even a passing glance of the Face of God. Moses was granted to look upon some semblance of the back of God's passing presence and left that experience with his face shining ablaze (Exodus 34:29-35). Paul writes: God alone has "immortality and dwells in unapproachable light--whom no one has ever seen nor can see" (1 Tim. 6:16). To look upon the Face of God in our sinful state, to view God's raw majesty, would cause our immediate undoing. His Light would blind us eternally. His Light is unapproachable because of its stunningly-innate brilliance. If God did not hide His Majestic Self, His Divine Glory and the Creator of Light itself because He is Light (Matt. 4:16; John 1:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9; 1 John 1:5, 6, 7), then we would all, in utter terror, perish everlastingly--we would become undone ontologically and dissolve immediately.
THE MAJESTIC GOD
Protestant Reformer Martin Luther is convinced that God does not call us to perpetually dwell upon some idea of a Majestic God, the God clothed / wrapped / hidden in utter Majesty and resplendent Glory, because our triune God has seen fit to reveal Himself--His true nature and divine character--through His incarnated Son Jesus Christ. Luther adds: "May you never be confronted by the unclothed God"1--God in His Majesty, immense Glory, unapproachable Light. We need the mercy, grace, and love of God toward us in Christ by the Holy Spirit, shining forth in the Gospel of Light (2 Cor. 4:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), the Gospel of our Salvation (Eph. 1:13), to be brought into His presence through faith.
THE INCARNATE GOD
The "unclothed majestic" God, in all of the glory of the triune Godhead, is far too pure, much too resplendent, too appallingly imposing for us finite and fallen creatures to comprehend. Luther continues: "[W]hen He is clothed in the voice of a man, and accommodates Himself to our capacity to understand, I can approach Him [God]"2--and this is what God wants: our nearness (Matt. 11:28-30). This is Good News indeed! Paul Althaus explains the view of Luther on the Clothed Majesty of God to this effect: "In this life God neither wants to meet us in that way," i.e., in the pomp and glorious circumstance of His majesty, "nor does He want us to try to approach Him thus. Rather, He adjusts Himself to our human ability to comprehend Him."3 How so? In and through Jesus (Heb. 1:1, 2, 3). We will, one day when we are finally glorified in Christ, see God in all His "unclothed" Majesty and weep, fear, love and respect and honor and worship Him. But, for now, we, with human eyes, must see the God Incarnate and commune with God our Savior and Creator through Him--God enfleshed in Christ Jesus our Advocate, Lord, Savior and Redeemer--the one and only way to the Father (John 14:6); there is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12).
JESUS: THE CENTRIPETAL FORCE
All attempts at understanding or attaining to the true knowledge of God by means of seeking God in His majesty are futile. "If we seek God outside of Christ, we will not find Him even if we look for Him in Heaven."4 We seek God in and through Jesus, the Word of God (John 1:1-3), solely by the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, or we seek God in vain through our own fallen efforts--all doomed to fail. All God-knowledge is solely attained in and through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior in His Word or not all. We are undone apart from Him--He holds our very being intact (Col. 1:17 KJV)--we live and move and have our being (our very existence) in Him (Acts 17:28 ESV).
JESUS: THE PHYSICAL GOD
This helps us understand the recorded words of Jesus: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). We approach God, we comprehend God, in and through Jesus Christ--God, not in the Unclothed Majesty of His brilliant and blinding Divinity, but through the physical senses. "Christ Himself is present to us," writes Althaus, "in a very earthly way. Everywhere in the history of revelation God embodies Himself for us."5 Moreover, our God is not offended toward such perceived self-limitation (if we are permitted to think this way of a limitation in God), this divine-to-human condescension. God continues to embody God's triune self: "The Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove and of the fiery tongues of Pentecost ... The Holy Spirit comes to us and brings Christ to us through the external, physical, sensible means of the word, of the human voice, and of the sacraments. All these words and sacraments are His veils and clothing, His masks and disguises, with which He covers Himself so that we may ... comprehend Him."6 He wants us to know Him.
If we are to seek God, by means of the Holy Spirit, then we seek Him not in our notions of His heavenly glory and divinity and majesty, but in His earthy, gritty, incarnated Son Jesus Christ. For in this way has God chosen to reveal His true nature--loving, caring, and approachable in the most available means possible (Matt. 11:28-29). For these reasons Luther insists that "whoever seeks God outside of Jesus finds the devil."7 We are encouraged, always, to look to Christ--the incarnated, enfleshed, personified Clothed Majesty and only proper and exact Manifestation of our triune God (John 1:1-18; Heb. 1:1, 2, 3). Look to Christ, in the Word of Christ, to find the true and saving Christ.
__________
1 As quoted by Paul Althaus in The Theology of Martin Luther (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1996), 20. Althaus explains Luther's view of God in His majesty: "Whoever thus tries to fly directly to heaven with his own thoughts 'falls, over-powered by that majesty which he sought to grasp in its nakedness.' God cannot meet us when He is clothed in His majesty. If He came thus, we could not grasp Him and we would find the brilliance of His glory too terrible to bear" (21).
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 22.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., 23.
THE MAJESTIC GOD
Protestant Reformer Martin Luther is convinced that God does not call us to perpetually dwell upon some idea of a Majestic God, the God clothed / wrapped / hidden in utter Majesty and resplendent Glory, because our triune God has seen fit to reveal Himself--His true nature and divine character--through His incarnated Son Jesus Christ. Luther adds: "May you never be confronted by the unclothed God"1--God in His Majesty, immense Glory, unapproachable Light. We need the mercy, grace, and love of God toward us in Christ by the Holy Spirit, shining forth in the Gospel of Light (2 Cor. 4:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), the Gospel of our Salvation (Eph. 1:13), to be brought into His presence through faith.
THE INCARNATE GOD
The "unclothed majestic" God, in all of the glory of the triune Godhead, is far too pure, much too resplendent, too appallingly imposing for us finite and fallen creatures to comprehend. Luther continues: "[W]hen He is clothed in the voice of a man, and accommodates Himself to our capacity to understand, I can approach Him [God]"2--and this is what God wants: our nearness (Matt. 11:28-30). This is Good News indeed! Paul Althaus explains the view of Luther on the Clothed Majesty of God to this effect: "In this life God neither wants to meet us in that way," i.e., in the pomp and glorious circumstance of His majesty, "nor does He want us to try to approach Him thus. Rather, He adjusts Himself to our human ability to comprehend Him."3 How so? In and through Jesus (Heb. 1:1, 2, 3). We will, one day when we are finally glorified in Christ, see God in all His "unclothed" Majesty and weep, fear, love and respect and honor and worship Him. But, for now, we, with human eyes, must see the God Incarnate and commune with God our Savior and Creator through Him--God enfleshed in Christ Jesus our Advocate, Lord, Savior and Redeemer--the one and only way to the Father (John 14:6); there is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12).
JESUS: THE CENTRIPETAL FORCE
All attempts at understanding or attaining to the true knowledge of God by means of seeking God in His majesty are futile. "If we seek God outside of Christ, we will not find Him even if we look for Him in Heaven."4 We seek God in and through Jesus, the Word of God (John 1:1-3), solely by the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, or we seek God in vain through our own fallen efforts--all doomed to fail. All God-knowledge is solely attained in and through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior in His Word or not all. We are undone apart from Him--He holds our very being intact (Col. 1:17 KJV)--we live and move and have our being (our very existence) in Him (Acts 17:28 ESV).
JESUS: THE PHYSICAL GOD
This helps us understand the recorded words of Jesus: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). We approach God, we comprehend God, in and through Jesus Christ--God, not in the Unclothed Majesty of His brilliant and blinding Divinity, but through the physical senses. "Christ Himself is present to us," writes Althaus, "in a very earthly way. Everywhere in the history of revelation God embodies Himself for us."5 Moreover, our God is not offended toward such perceived self-limitation (if we are permitted to think this way of a limitation in God), this divine-to-human condescension. God continues to embody God's triune self: "The Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove and of the fiery tongues of Pentecost ... The Holy Spirit comes to us and brings Christ to us through the external, physical, sensible means of the word, of the human voice, and of the sacraments. All these words and sacraments are His veils and clothing, His masks and disguises, with which He covers Himself so that we may ... comprehend Him."6 He wants us to know Him.
If we are to seek God, by means of the Holy Spirit, then we seek Him not in our notions of His heavenly glory and divinity and majesty, but in His earthy, gritty, incarnated Son Jesus Christ. For in this way has God chosen to reveal His true nature--loving, caring, and approachable in the most available means possible (Matt. 11:28-29). For these reasons Luther insists that "whoever seeks God outside of Jesus finds the devil."7 We are encouraged, always, to look to Christ--the incarnated, enfleshed, personified Clothed Majesty and only proper and exact Manifestation of our triune God (John 1:1-18; Heb. 1:1, 2, 3). Look to Christ, in the Word of Christ, to find the true and saving Christ.
__________
1 As quoted by Paul Althaus in The Theology of Martin Luther (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1996), 20. Althaus explains Luther's view of God in His majesty: "Whoever thus tries to fly directly to heaven with his own thoughts 'falls, over-powered by that majesty which he sought to grasp in its nakedness.' God cannot meet us when He is clothed in His majesty. If He came thus, we could not grasp Him and we would find the brilliance of His glory too terrible to bear" (21).
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 22.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., 23.
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